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Take chances. Abandon all the rules. Ditch the recipe. Color outside the lines.

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

4 Lies That Religion Tells About Grace

As many of you who
follow my blog know, I grew up in church. Not only did I grow up in church, but
my family was in the ministry business, which meant I was in, around, and
hearing about church constantly. I heard quite often of God’s unconditional
love for those outside the church and his patience with unbelievers, but it
seemed that once you were “on God’s team” His favor was something you had to
work hard to gain. This drove me away
from Christianity and left me with a skewed view of what grace really was. The more I learned about God’s grace and love
for me apart from my efforts, the more I was able to distinguish some of the
lies that I was told and still hear today about grace. Here are my top four lies that religion has
told me about grace:

[1] Teaching grace means that you are throwing
out the law.

This lie is number one for a reason. It is definitely the most common argument
against teaching grace and actually reveals a twisted view of the law. If we believe that the law is attainable,
that our right living can somehow gain us favor from God, then we have a pretty
low view of the law and a pretty high view of ourselves. The message of grace views the law as a
perfect and unachievable standard; one that can only be reached by accepting
Christ’s completion of it on our behalf.
The choice to live by grace shows that you have a high view of the law,
not a low one! Christ did not come to throw away or get rid of the law; He came
to complete it! After accepting Christ’s sacrifice, God sees us not as if we
had never sinned, but rather, as if we had kept the entire law for our whole
lives!

“Do not think that I
have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these
things but to fulfill them.” –Matthew 5:17

[2] Grace deals with eternal security not daily
living.

This lie is not necessarily one that is said outright; no,
Satan is much smarter than that. Maybe it
was just my personal experience but any time that I heard about grace in the
church it was in terms of something to come.
God’s grace became my ticket out of Hell (or fire insurance as the
clever ones called it) but it had little impact on my daily life. Grace, then, had the power to save my soul
from Hell but not my life from addiction.
Viewing and teaching grace in this light makes it weak and watered
down. Grace has the power to transform
lives, heal marriages, break addiction, and restore relationships! Why would we want to limit its power to
usefulness only in death? Let us abandon
the bonds we’ve placed on grace and find freedom in how reckless it really is!

[3] Those who teach grace ignore sin.

As with most things, those who don’t regularly sit under
teachers of grace make assumptions about what they teach. I absolutely believe that there are some
gracers out there who completely ignore the sin of their followers and puff
themselves up with how accepting they are; the same thing happened in Paul’s
day too! Does that mean we should throw
out grace altogether? Or worse, should
we mix it with some law? Of course
not! Grace is not an overlooking of our
sin; it is a cleansing from it. Grace
does not ignore our brokenness; it heals it.
Grace is not a pain killer; it is a cure. Grace does not teach us to ignore our sin but
rather to live out of the forgiveness we have already received for it, letting
that become our drive towards a desire to do good. Grace, then, is not a license to sin but an
ignition of a desire not to.

[4] Those who say we don’t have to be obedient to
receive blessing cheapen grace.

Tullian Tchividjian says it best, “Grace works without
requiring anything on our part. It’s not expensive. It’s not even cheap. It’s free.”
How can we cheapen something that is already a free gift to us? In fact, those who choose to live a life
driven by doing good to gain from God, actually make Christ’s sacrifice
worthless!

“I have been
crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.
So the life I now live in the body, I live because of the faithfulness of the
Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not set aside God’s grace, because if
righteousness could come through the law, then Christ died for nothing!” –Galatians
2:20-21

Grace is incapable of being made cheap. It was bought with a high price, the blood of
one who loved us more than we can ever imagine when we least deserved it. The price has been paid in full so that we
might enjoy it free of charge! Grace
cannot put on layaway, making a payment every paycheck, hoping one day we get
to enjoy what we worked so hard for. It
is ours, in fullness, right now. Let us
freely enjoy the lavish love of our Father!

Have you heard these
lies before? Do you find yourself
believing them without even thinking about it?
Dare to doubt what your religion has told you. Be brave enough to believe that God’s
pleasure is not dependent on your obedience.
I guarantee that you will find freedom from worry, peace in the midst of
struggle, and a genuine desire to live a life of love!